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After selecting the sources it is time to search in the different systems (Library Catalogue, databases, Internet, etc.) using the most appropriate search strategies. For this purpose it is useful to get familiar with some rules of syntax (which defines the best use of search operators for creating good queries).
Below you will find some common search strategies that can be used in most systems and that allow you to extend or narrow the search in order to obtain more relevant results.
|
Operator |
What does it do? | Example | Results | Check out! |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AND | narrows the search | Wind AND Energy | Both terms must appear |  |
| OR | extends the search | Wind OR Energy |
Either both terms will appear or only one of them will appear |
 |
| NOT | narrows the search | Wind NOT Energy |
The term after the operator is excluded |
 |
The use of certain symbols associated with a term can retrieve different variants of a word:
Attention: the symbol which represents the truncation may vary from system to system. The most common symbols are the asterisk (*), the question mark (?) or the dollar ($).
| Operator | What does it do? | Example |
Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| * | extends the search | energ* | energy, energetic, energize, etc. |
Quotation marks are used when we need to search for a phrase.
It will therefore retrieve documents which are more relevant than searching without quotation marks.
| Operator | What does it do? | Example |
Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| "..." | narrows the search | "wind energy" | retrieves the exact expression within quotation marks |
This video illustrates the search strategies shown previously:
Yavapai College Library. 2011. "Searching Databases". Youtube video, 4:55. https://youtu.be/y4I5-ErNZC0.
Some search systems have features like Thesaurus (structured list of keywords) to help obtaining more relevant results.
One example is Engineering Village, an engineering database subscribed by FEUP.
